The Battle Of Marathon: How An Attack On Tyranny Changed The Future of Civilization

June 20, 2011
By
Novus Medical Detox Center

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“Two thousand three hundred and forty years ago, a council of Athenian
Officers was summoned on the slope of one of the mountains that look over
the plain of Marathon, on the eastern coast of Attica [a historical region
of Greece]. The immediate subject of their meeting was to consider whether
they should give battle to an enemy that lay encamped on the shore beneath
them; but on the result of their deliberations depended, not merely the
fate of two armies, but the whole future progress of human civilization.”
So wrote the English historian Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy (1812-1878),
in the year 1851, in his famous book, The Fifteen Decisive Battles of
the World: from Marathon to Waterloo. By today’s reckoning, the
Battle of Marathon, in 490 BC, was 2,500 years ago this year.

The Battle of Marathon was a cataclysmic confrontation between the armies
of the city-state of Athens, and a roughly ten-times-larger invasion force
sent by King Darius of Persia to subjugate Greece and burn Athens to the
ground. In that battle, a much smaller Athenian force successfully defeated
the Persian invaders. Winning the Battle of Marathon saved Athens, allowing
200-plus years of flowering of Athenian art, science, politics, philosophy
and education which, through Rome and other means, came to be the very
core of what we know as Western civilization. Sir Edward chose this battle,
and most of his “fifteen decisive battles”, because they helped
preserve Europe from incursions by non-Europeans. The popular European
view of the time was that “civilization” only existed in Europe
- all others were barbarian. Had the Persians won, he is saying, it would
have been the end of Athens, and therefore the end of “progress
of human civilization.” Today, in our more enlightened world-view,
we don’t agree with Sir Edward’s view of civilization - Europe
is certainly not the only civilization. The Battle of Marathon certainly
was pivotal, however, for the future of Western civilization - arguably
more than any other battle or event in history. The Battle of Marathon
tells us something more valuable than historical facts. It teaches us
a vital personal lesson in courage and survival.

There can often be a time when one must take a stand against tyranny -
whatever is holding us back, keeping us down or stopping our lives from
progressing. It’s that nothing-to-lose, everything-to-gain moment
when we must recognize that if this battle can be won, our life can change
and our future reshaped as we want. If we lose, well, we’re already
dying here. This is how it all happened. Some years earlier, Athens, and
the Greek city of Eretria, sent their armies to help the Greek city of
Ionia in its uprising against Persian rule. They failed - but caused so
much damage that Persia’s vengeful King Darius sent a massive naval
task force, estimated by some historians at 600 or more ships and 100,000
or more archers and cavalry, to punish and destroy Eretria and Athens.
On their way to Athens, the Persian forces besieged and defeated Eretria
as planned. They sailed on, and landed at the Bay of Marathon, near the
town of Marathon, just 25 miles from Athens. To reach Athens, they would
have to go through one or another of two narrow passes through mountains
that ringed the plain. The Athenians, learning of the invasion in advance,
quick-marched their army to Marathon in time to blockade the two passes
through the mountains.

It is estimated that Athens could have mustered no more than 9,000 soldiers.
Another 1,000 volunteers from the Greek city of Palataea brought the Greek
force to perhaps 10,000 at most. But this comparatively small Greek force
was able to stop the Persian advance, at least temporarily. The Persians
couldn’t attack in force through the narrow passes. For five days,
the two armies were stalemated, neither advancing nor retreating. Meanwhile,
a runner (or runners) had set off for Sparta, the second largest Greek
city-state after Athens, to send their armies immediately to Marathon.
Without Sparta, the Athenians appeared lost, whatever current advantage
they held. But under cover of night, the Persians dispatched a portion
of its fleet up the coast to attack Athens directly. Seeing this, the
Athenians realized they were in a terrible situation. No force remained
in Athens to defend against a Persian invasion. And as long as the remaining
Persians threatened to pour through the passes, they could not be left
unguarded. Now we have come full circle, back to Sir Edward’s quote
at the beginning of this article.

The Athenian generals gathered their officers and laid out a desperate
plan. Since the Spartans had still not arrived, the Athenians had no choice
but to go it alone. In spite of being outnumbered, they must attack the
Persians full on, and defeat them no matter what. But then, exhausted
from this battle, they yet had to march quick-time all the way back to
Athens, to intercept and defeat those thousands of Persians, now resting
comfortably in their ships on their way to burn Athens to the ground.
In their favor, the Athenians had superior armor, shields and weapons,
and fought in a deadly closed formation called the phalanx.

The Persians had apparently dispatched their cavalry on the ships to Athens,
and mostly archers, wearing nothing more protective than tunics, remained.
With nothing to lose, and everything to gain, the Athenians made their
choice, and charged the Persians down through the passes. Screaming their
blood-curdling war-cry and running at full speed, protected from the dense
hails of arrows by their shields, they terrified and dispersed the Persians.
Their heavy bronze armor and shields shattered Persian bone and flesh,
driving the enemy back into the plain. The Persian army was routed up
the beach, and chased back to their ships or into swamps, where countless
Persians drowned. The historian Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies
were counted on the battlefield. It is unknown how many more were lost
in the swamps.

The Athenians lost 192 men, and the Plataeans 11. A small force stayed
to guard the battlefield, and the rest of the army, as tired as it was,
marched quick-time back to Athens, and arrived in time to prevent a Persian
landing. Seeing they had lost, the Persians set sail for home. The next
day, the Spartans arrived at Marathon. They had covered 140 miles in three
days - in other words, they ran all the way, and in full armor. Spartan
troops and officers toured the battlefield, and agreed that the Athenians
had won a great victory indeed. It is thought they greatly regretted missing
the action. An interesting sidelight is the somewhat apocryphal legend
which tells of a messenger named Pheidippides, who runs the 25-plus miles
to Athens bringing news of the battle, and then collapses and dies of
exhaustion. True or not, the alleged feat has captured the imagination
of students of history - and athletes - down through the ages.

To commemorate this accomplishment, the very first modern Olympic Games,
held in Athens in 1896, introduced “the Marathon race” - 25
or so miles, non-stop, from Marathon to Athens. From that, all long races
have since been dubbed “marathons”. On December 8, 2010, the
United States House of Representatives honored the Battle of Marathon
as one of the most significant battles in human history. They were not
so much honoring Sir Edward’s Eurocentric view of civilization,
but rather the always terrifying, but always crucial, life-changing, life-affirming
decision to attack, to risk all for victory, and the preservation of everything
that really counts.

At Novus, we help our patients fight what is often the most important battle
of their lives - the conquest of substance abuse. These battles have always
begun earlier, when each patient bravely makes that essential decision
to take a stand and attack the tyranny of addiction and dependency.